Storage locker appears to yield Bulls championship rings

Rings encased in plastic cubes are likely replicas that team gave to season ticket holders

April 25, 2012|By Rosemary R. Sobol, Chicago Tribune reporter

These rings were found in a storage locker. The Bulls said replicas of two championship rings were encased in plastic and given to season ticket holders. (Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune)

A South Side man says items from a public storage locker he bought at an auction last week once belonged to late Cook County Board President John Stroger.

Among the items in Chris Amer's find: what appear to be two Chicago Bulls championship rings.

"I hit a treasure," Amer boasted Tuesday.

Maybe not. Let's rewind.

Amer said he attended the auction last Wednesday at Metro Self Storage, 1001 E. 87th St., on the Far South Side. "I won it at 450 bucks," Amer said.

"And then I found some Bulls ... championship rings in plastic casings, and I called my partner and said, 'You won't believe what I just found,'" Amer said.

They found "hundreds of photos" of Stroger and several plaques and awards items from a college.

Amer said there are also some items that appear to belong to Todd Stroger, John Stroger's son and also a former Cook County Board president, including a money order that was never cashed that was "for his campaign," Amer said.

Amer said he contacted the Stroger family Monday to inform them that he'd found the memorabilia.

"He wanted some of his stuff back," Ames said of Todd Stroger.

Chinta Strausberg, former communications director for the late John Stroger, who died in 2008, said Tuesday afternoon that she talked to Todd Stroger.

"He is aware of the story, but he doesn't want to talk about it,'' Strausberg said. "He is very adamant about that.''

When asked about the rings, the Bulls released the following statement Tuesday night:

"We haven't seen the rings you referenced so can't comment on them, specifically; however, as a year-end gift after the Bulls' 5th and 6th championships (1997 and 1998), we sent all season ticket holders a replica ring encased in Lucite. Approximately 6,000 of each ring were made to accommodate every account."